Cereals, oats and grains
This week it’s:
FOR me, winter is the season when I have porridge for breakfast. When I started eating it again a few weeks ago, I realised that I didn’t actually know what porridge was. It contains oats, of course, but what exactly are oats? Then, my wife said she wasn’t sure if cornflakes were actually flakes of corn. And if they were, what sort of corn: wheat, or the corn you get on cobs? Then this opened the floodgates. Was Weetabix wheat? And what are grains – seeds? I had to investigate and let you know. OK, it’s not pure gardening, but there are many links between cereal crops and garden plants – and any true plant lover will, I’m sure, forgive me this little diversion!
Doing porridge!
THE word ‘porridge’ actually refers. It’s planted in the spring for an early autumn harvest, or in autumn for a late summer harvest the next year. The harvested oats are steamed and high-pressure rolled so, when we buy them, they are thinner and part-cooked, so we can prepare them in minutes.
